Ridley Scott is my favorite contemporary director. One of the few whose movies I will see by sheer virtue of his directorial involvement. His eye for photography is fantastic and his narrative pacing ebbs and flows like gentle surf. His education as a set designer has led him to create fantastic movies from the seed of production design. He has admitted as much on the DVD of Blade Runner. Whereas with some directors that could be an undoing, with Scott it has often enabled him to transcend the narrative.
That’s not to say he doesn’t have his flaws. His later work has suffered from an uneasy fondness for turbulent and slow-shutter cinematography in his action sequences. From such a celebrated visual director this is nothing short of perplexing. Leave the viscera of shaky-cam to directors like Michael Bay who want merely to make the audience happy (or hide flaws in the CGI), or Paul Greengrass who thinks he’s making “You-Are-There” docu-drama every time he rolls camera. You’re better than that, Ridley. Still, even when he succumbs to this injudiciousness, he’s frequently delivered a world and a story worth visiting.
His latest release, Robin Hood, marks the 33rd anniversary of Scott’s debut as a feature film director. How has his work evolved over the last three decades?
- The Duellists (1977)
Stealing liberally, and successfully, from Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon, Scott makes a strong debut with this Napoleanic-era tale of obsession, hubris and bellicosity. Demonstrating early on his magnificent eye for production design and cinematography, the film is a series of violent narratives and gorgeous landscapes. Elegantly utilizing the more restrained 1.85:1 aspect ratio, Scott manages to capture sweeping vistas in a constrained frame — a feat generally reserved for the likes of David Lean and Terrence Malick.
- Alien (1979)
Then the world took notice. Really three films in one, but paced laconically to heighten the terror when it arrives nearly at the midpoint. The chest-bursting scene remains one of the most iconic images in horror today. Yet as with the best of genre films, one could argue that its sci-fi elements outweigh its horror ones. After one decent sequel and four wretched ones, it’s a relief that Sir Ridley is returning to film not one, but two prequels to (hopefully) wrap this series up right.
- Blade Runner (1982)
Try not to compare succeeding science fiction films to Scott’s masterpiece. Like Metropolis before it, this benchmark of modern sci-fi crosses so many genres it’s difficult to keep track. It’s also a wonder of experimental filmmaking. Compare the five continue reading…
